DALLAS — It might just be the toughest job in Texas politics, leading the state Democratic Party.
And after its shellacking last November, the party is looking to reinvent itself.
Enter Kendall Scudder, who thinks he’s the right person, at the right time, for the job. And Scudder wants to completely reform the party, not just tinker along the edges.
He said he’s spent his first week as Chairman of the Texas Democratic Party trying to figure out how to rebuild a more efficient and nimble organization.
“Democrats, and I think really anybody that’s involved in government, they tend to kind of saddle themselves with bureaucracy. And I’m a private sector guy. I want an organization that can move and be responsive and be helpful to people that are on the ground,” Scudder told us on Inside Texas Politics.
Scudder said that starts with rethinking what the party considers to be “rural” Texas.
There are more than 40 cities in the state with more than 100,000 residents. And in those areas, Scudder argued that the GOP has had free rein to describe and frame the Democratic party because it doesn’t necessarily show up in force in these mid-sized cities.
“If you put them in any other state, they’d be a population center. But because it’s Texas, they’re considered rural, which is kind of weird. I’m sorry, Amarillo is not rural. Lubbock is not rural. Amarillo has 200,000 people in it. And what’s the party been doing there?” Scudder asked as an example.
Big Spring. Abilene. Tyler. Texarkana. Beaumont. Scudder used all of those Texas cities as examples of where the party can start investing more resources and building true infrastructure so county chairs and volunteers who walk door-to-door can tell those residents what the Democratic party stands for.
Scudder said, to that end, the Democratic party will now keep staff year-round, as opposed to laying off everyone when the election is over.
And he believes those steps combined will help the party finally establish a statewide grassroots organization.
“What we as a party have depended on is some big savior at the top to raise a bunch of money and put an organization together, and then they’re gone and we don’t have it anymore,” Scudder said. “I think that the way to do it is you have to build up an organizing team, and you split the state into regions, and you don’t lay off everybody when an election is over, and you run a strong data team that informs every department that we have to make things more efficient.”
Of course, fundraising is what keeps any political engine running, so Scudder is also focused on raising a ton of money, even hoping to bring former donors back into the fold.
Scudder is taking over for Gilberto Hinojosa, who resigned after Democrats lost big in the 2024 general election. That means he will have to run for a full four-year term in 2026.
Seven people were in the race to lead the state Democratic party, but Scudder won 65 out of 121 votes from the governing board, an outright majority on the first ballot.
And he’s quick to point out that Democrats just elected a millennial progressive to lead the party.
“You should see a Democratic Party that has more bite in it. You’ll see a Democratic Party that doesn’t just take punches but throws them too. You’re going to see a Democratic Party that is much more present in places where we typically haven’t been,” he said confidently. “What we’re gonna focus on is making sure that working people are the center of every discussion we’re having and how every bill we write, every bill we are able to get passed, everything we advocate for, how does it impact a person that’s trying to put cleats, soccer cleats, on their kiddo.”